Monthly Archives: September 2014

So, I was pretty exhausted after my rage fueled mani last night, so I took it easy tonight. KBShimmer released her new line a few weeks ago, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, you should. Do it! Do it here: KBSHIMMER! I bought five of the shades, and they have all been amazing so far. I’ve been sitting on this one, trying to decide what to do with it. Finally, I just decided that I was being an idiot (not unusual). I didn’t need to worry about what to do with it beyond putting it on my nails. And I’m glad I did.

See?!?! So pretty!

This was outside in the sun. I figured I’d take advantage of what could be one of the last nice days of the year!

Here is an indoor shot:

It is a crelly with glitter. It is a smokey or grayish blue, but in the sun if definitely looks brighter. It is a very subtle, but pretty color.

And, a gratuitous close-up:

I only had to apply two coats for opaqueness. It is topped with one coat of Rica’s Glossy Glam. The formula was easy to work with. It was a little thicker, which is consistent with my experience in generally with crellies. But it smoothed out easily, and wasn’t that sort of gloopy, gloppy, unwieldy thickness. It was really easy to work with.

This polish was perfect for today. I wanted something simple, but I didn’t want to be boring. This fit the bill perfectly!

So, while I in the midst of an epic bedtime battle with my daughter last night, I got notification that someone had tried to hack my awesome website. Needless to say, that did not improve my mood. I mean, I know I am an absolute delight, but I am fairly certain no one wants spam from my site. The hubs assures me that this is very common, and that I should not take it so personally. But I am. Leave my happy little corner of the internet alone dammit! (Janet). So, anyways, I took my frustration out on my nails. And when I’m pissed, I do rainbows. Last night, it was Fuck You Rainbows. With glitter.

I started off by putting down a coat of Glitter Off. I ended up doing it on all my nails, which I didn’t need to do, but I wasn’t paying attention, so there ya’ have it.

Nothing more fun than watching glue dry, eh?

Once it did dry completely, I put down a coat of Essie Grow Stronger on top, then started in on the accent nail. Despite being super aggravated, you’ll notice that this was a tea kind of night. Wasn’t particularly calming, but it was tasty.

This is just one coat of Badass:

Pretty badass, right? Sorry for some of the shitty pictures, I was tired and too lazy to keep going to my light box for good pics. But you get the drift. Anywho, while that dried, I added two coats of My Voice is a Little Norse to the remaining fingers.

(LOOK! I got up for this picture!) It is hard to capture the full glitter effect of the polish, but I tried. And, in trying, I totally jacked up my index finger on my right hand. So, I redid that finger, then set into stamping. I put drops of color over the image, then scraped. I suck and forgot to take a picture of what it looked like before I scraped and picked the image up, but I will do that the next time I do a multi-color stamp! Here is post-scraping, after I picked up the image:

Pardon the shadow, but I love this pic. Middle fingers and smeared rainbows. Cracks me up.

So, after cackling about my plate shitting rainbows for a while, here is what I ended up with it:

I wanted to matte the middle finger on my middle finger, though, so I did:

And that was the finished product. It was a bit messy, and not nearly as crisp and clean and I usually prefer, but it reflects how I was feeling last night. And, it amuses me. Something about putting sparkling rainbows on my fingers tends to be a good outlet for my anger. Better than reaching through the computer and strangling the asshat who pissed me off, I suppose!

Anywho — Thanks for stopping by! Stick around, I may be headed back to work full-time, which means there will probably be an uptick in vulgar, frustration fueled manis. Oh, and probably some professional ones too, which can be fun too!

I have been working on this post for what seems like FOREVER! I had all the pics taken, then decided I didn’t like them, and did it all over again. I suspect there will be a part 2 to this post forthcoming when I get my next MdU order, but for now, here we go!

I have three brands of stamping polish. By this, I mean polish that is created specifically for stamping. I have lots of other standard polishes that work for stamping, but the stamping polishes tend to give opaque, crisp results without having to test run each polish.

I have Konad, Rica, and Mundo de Unas (MdU). I purchased my Konads from Amazon. The Ricas came from her Etsy shop. And the MdU comes from her site. Note that MdU ships from Mexico, so it can take a while to reach you. MdU has the most extensive collection of colors, but Rica has been expanding her line quite a bit. In my experience, you really can’t go wrong with any of the brands.

There are some general differences between the product. First off, Rica’s are the thinnest formula. I only have the black and white Konad to compare with, but I think MdU comes out as the thickest. I noticed a smell with the MdU polishes. To me, some of them smell chemical-ly. My husband compared it to model glue. But some of them have a rather pleasant smell. AND, some people don’t think they smell unusual at all. As I have been using the polishes, the smell seems to have dissipated. So, either they just smelled so strongly from being in a box for the lengthy trip to my door OR I’ve gotten used to it. Who knows. So, take my opinion on that with a grain of salt I suppose!

Now, on to the comparisons! NOTE — I am NOT comparing dupes (other than the white and black). These are just colors that happen to be in the same family.

This is the image I used. I used:

It is the Moyou Pro XL 10. I picked it because it had some larger portions of the image as well as the vines, which provided a bit of contrast. For the comparisons, I used each color over a white base and a black base. For the white, I used China Glaze and for the black, I used Sinful Colors.

First off, BLUE!

Left is Rica’s Robins Egg Blue. Right is MdU Blue. Here’s how they look:

Index and ring finger are MdU; Middle and pinky are Rica. (Yes, I know I dinged my middle finger, but you can still see the image just fine, so I did not redo it as my fingers can only take so much remover at a time).

And, close ups:

You may be able to tell that the MdU Blue stained a little bit. I used acetone to clean-up my cuticles, but some blue remained. I left it, since I wanted this to be an accurate and honest review. After I removed the polish, I just used a little whitening toothpaste, and it all cleaned right up! I did not have any staining problems with Rica’s blue. Both colors were easy to use and stamped nicely over white and black.

Next up, GREEN!

Here, I used Rica’s Summer Mint and MdU’s Lemon Tree. Obviously two very different colors, but both worked well.

(Mdu, Rica, Mdu, Rica)

Close-ups:

On the computer now, I see a few issue with the colors over black, but I was moving fairly quickly, so you can attribute that to user error. Both colors are vibrant over black. The Summer Mint does not show as well over the white, but I have used it with lovely results over a variety of dark and medium colors. I love Lemon Tree – it is just such a fun color!

Next up, PINK!

I used Rica Pink Elephant and MdU Orchid.

(Mdu, Rica, MdU, Rica)

The results on this one over black again were a bit sketchy. And this was the second version, so not completely my fault.

Both blacks and whites stamped well, in my opinion. The blacks especially were nice and crisp. These were the last shots I took, and you can see that my cuticles took a beating, but that’s okay. They survived. I want to point out that Rica’s Whiteout (as well as the other colors), don’t leave a chalky type residue during clean-up. I have found that with some white/light polishes, clean-up takes forever as I try to get all of that residue off. I have not had that problem with Rica, which is really nice.

In general, I don’t think you could go wrong with any brand. I favor MdU a bit at this point, because their color selection is outstanding and the images tend to be a bit more consistent. The Rica polish definitely requires a lighter touch, since it is a bit thinner. If you are sensitive to smell, you may want to place a small MdU order to start with (she offers full size and mini options) and let them air out a bit when they arrive. And, you do get more bang for your buck with MdU. The Rica polishes are a bit more expensive, but they also provide nice results. Plus, she ships orders SUPER fast so if you do not want to wait, that is a bonus.

I have a second order of MdU that I should be receiving any day, so there may be a part 2 to this post before long…we’ll see.

And, if you made it to this point, you get a gold star! This was a super long post, but I hope some of the comparisons help anyone trying to make a decision. I tried to touch on each issue I could think of, but I’m sure I didn’t hit everything. So, if you have questions, just leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer!

Howdy friends! Today, I used my favorite color combo: black, white, and red. Red is my all-time favorite color. I love it with neutrals, navy, and grays, but especially when put simply with black and white. Although I’m not sure this qualifies, exactly, as “simple,” but it wasn’t especially difficult.

Here’s what I used tonight:

From left to right: Butter London Cotton Buds, Sinful Colors Black on Black, Konad black, Konad white, Moyou Pro 23, Messy Mansion marshmallow stamper, Rica Glossy Glam, Mundo de Unas Reddish, Poshe quick dry, and China Glaze quick dry. I have no idea why I put Konad white in this picture — I did not use it in this mani. But, there it is anyways!

I laid down two coats of Sinful Colors Black on Black on my middle finger and two coats of Butter London Cotton Buds on the rest.

The black is topped with China Glaze quick dry and the white is topped with Poshe quick dry. I keep one quick dry to top whites only, because they inevitably cloud up my bottle.

Once everything was dry, I stamped the black over each white nail. I inversed it on my ring finger, just because. Then I added the red over the black, cleaned up, and that was that!

And, for shiggles, here is a shot as the evening sun poured into my living room: